


The Christmas Spirits

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 13:05:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17244746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: A Veronica Mars retelling of a Christmas Carol (almost) in short, sweet bursts of emotional content. These started out as Promptober prompts I've expanded and epilogued with a Happy LoVe Christmas ending. Happy New Years to my Veronica Mars crack enablers, and thank you guys for reading and commenting on another year of self-indulgence. Can't wait for new Veronica Mars stuff in 2019, and maybe I'll even finish a WIP or two. Thanks <3





	1. Past

  Crawling into her bed, Veronica clicked off her TV when it started singing Christmas carols at her. Kids were caroling, creatures weren’t stirring, and Veronica was missing her dad and only feeling a bah-humbug mood. Christmases in New York were definitely different than sunny Neptune, California; New York set up a properly Christmas-y atmosphere. The Rockefeller tree was lit, people were bustling with packages on the subway, and the threat of a white Christmas was looming serious and real. But with her dad across the country, her mom busy with a new baby, and Wallace still too busy with work and family to drop everything and visit, Veronica just wasn’t feeling like cooking any Cornish game hens. Weeks ago, she’d made one big trip to the post office mailing out her presents, and she’d done most of her shopping online to avoid the lines and crowds. And Salvation Army bells.   
  
    She  _ did _ do her office’s Secret Santa, gifting Cindy from HR a travel mug with fancy-flavored gourmet coffee. And Luke from the IT department got her a new desktop wrist rest, which… she actually kind of needed.    
  
    But her apartment flaunted no Christmas tree, no twinkling lights, no baby in a manger, or red-suited man with a sack full of goodies.    
  
    With her eyes drifting off to sleep, Veronica sat up when she heard Lilly Kane’s laugh for the first time in a decade.    
  
    “Lilly?” Veronica flicked on her light to see Lilly Kane at the foot of her bed.    
  
    “C’mon, Veronica Mars, where’s your Christmas spirit?” Lilly looked around Veronica’s room, gravitating to her closet and seeing no elf costumes.    
  
   “Lilly, what are you doing here?” The murder case of Lilly Kane was long-solved, and it’d been a long time since memories of Lilly Kane manifested themselves as fashion dispensaries in Veronica’s home.    
  
    “Duh, I’m the ghost of Christmas past, dummy; I really have to tell you how this works?” Folding her arms across her pep squad uniform, Lilly sighed. “Three ghosts, reminding you about the true meaning of Christmas; yada, yada, let’s get to the flashbacks with  _ moi,” _ Lilly snapped her fingers.    
  
    In the blink of an eye, Veronica found herself in a corner of the Kane’s living room, watching a Christmas Eve that played out a decade earlier.    
  
    “This was your last Christmas,” Veronica said, to ghost Lilly who shushed her. At the time, Veronica didn’t know everything was going to change so much during that year. She looked at herself, her younger, more carefree self, and felt a little sad for the girl who had no idea what was to come.   
  
    “Logan’s about to give out his presents to the gang, and I’m still relieved mine wasn’t a marriage proposal,” with a dramatic wince, ghost Lilly pointed Veronica back to the scene in front of them.    
  
    “Well, wait…” Veronica interrupted again, “Aren’t you supposed to tell me what I’m supposed to learn from…” she gestured, “All this?”    
  
   Rolling her eyes, ghost Lilly sighed. “Weren’t you the private detective? Did law school melt your brain  _ that _ much? Detect!” 

  
    “Found family and watercolor nostalgia aside, is this just showing me a nice memory of you? We had a nice Christmas that year,” she smiled. Her family all in one piece, under one roof, Lilly still alive. The Fab Four a strong unit of good cheer.    
  
    “Hello? Look at you,” Lilly pointed to a younger Veronica, laughing and dodging balls of wrapping paper. “I’m not saying I  _ knew _ this would happen, but like. Duh,” she sighed. “You’ve totally let yourself become one of those grown ups who doesn’t know how to have a good time, or let anyone in. Does that sound like you?” They listened to the laugh, but Veronica resisted. She knew how to have a good time; she knew how to let people in. So she just hadn’t done those things  _ lately. _ That didn’t mean she needed dreams or ghosts or memories to show her  _ how. _   



	2. Present

    “We’re supposed to just brush past the part where you’re so lonely your friends have to haunt you? But you’re fine, you’re Veronica Mars, you’re all good,” Wallace stood over her, his skeptical face appearing in front of her in all it’s Wallace-like glory.   
  
_“Not_ another nightmare, am I gonna get my sleep-cycle reimbursed? No more flashbacks,” Veronica threw her covers back, and accepted that this was how her night was going to go. Three ghosts, yada yada, Christmas feelings, yada yada. “It is good to see you , though. You’re not… I mean with the _haunting,”_  she gestured vaguely with a swipe through his middle, “you’re not dead, right?” The technicalities of these nightmares were starting to pile up in Veronica’s very sleep-deprived brain.   
  
    “I think technically I’m just visiting,” Wallace offered her an almost-transparent shrug, “but _haunting_ _you_ sounds more official, can you just let me have this? Extremely not dead though, which you would know for sure if you called more, thank you very much.” Ready to lay it on heavy, Wallace’s ghost reached for Veronica’s hand. “No more flashbacks; it’s ten pm on the west coast, let’s see what you’re missing, shall we?”   
  
     In an instant, Veronica was brought to her father’s office. Slumped over, asleep at his desk on Christmas Eve, Veronica’s heart sank.   
  
    “He promised he was going home early tonight, and snuggling up with Back Up and some hot cocoa with festive marshmallows.” She sighed; she was pretty sure he had been exaggerating about the marshmallows even at the time, but she really hoped he would go home for Christmas.   
  
    “Who died and put you in charge of vacation time?” Wallace interrupted Veronica’s pity and guilt spiral. “You’re telling me _you_ took the day off?”  
  
    When she frowned, Wallace smiled his victory.   
  
    “So… you’re the ghost of Christmas present, and you’re here to… guilt me into coming home? Not even Dad does that,” she pointed out, as they both listened to Keith start to snore.   
  
   “Your dad puts on a brave face but we _all_ know that he’d rather be buried under ten feet of snow with you than sleeping in his desk chair,” he sighed. “Fine, lemme show you _my_ Christmas Eve. No guilt here, just wanna show you what you’re missing out on,” Wallace shrugged, and with a tug on her arm brought them to his mother’s house.   
  
    Christmas decorations sparkled across the mantlepiece, the tree stood almost proud enough to be an east coast Christmas tree, and Wallace and the Fennels were all laughing around the dinner table. Veronica swore she could smell chocolate pie.   
  
    “Guilt and desserts? Okay, you may be onto something of a competent strategy…” Veronica smiled at Alicia and a grown-up looking Darrell, and Wallace and Mac looking relaxed and happy. Extended family was milling about in the kitchen, and as they waded through the crowd- literally- Veronica thought she spotted her name on a present under that big tree.   
  
    “I love that you guys always get a real tree,” Veronica bent down over the wrapped present; it’s red paper and gold ribbon made Veronica miss her family harder.   
  
    “Me? All real, baby,” Wallace elbowed her, teasing, and looked down at the present, too. “I kept meaning to mail it, but every time I thought about it I thought maybe you’d surprise us all and show up, so I kept it here for you just in case.”   
  
   Laughter behind them made Veronica give him a half-smile. “So tomorrow morning you’ll be in the post office, being my belated Secret Santa?” She tried for light, but ghost Wallace didn’t budge. “I can’t just come home because you miss me,” gently reminding them both, Veronica thought about everything she had waiting on the other side of the country.   
  
    “Maybe not, but you could come home because you miss us.” Wallace waved his hand and they were back in her apartment, alone and quiet. “Is your life really here, still? Or are you just nursing that Veronica Mars stubborn streak with no one here to stop you? No one will think less of you if you want to stay in New York, you know. But no one will think less of you if you want to come back. Or at least visit,” he looked around her apartment, with a shrug. “We worry about you, V. We’re proud of you, and we always will be, but we’re worried. And, since you’re being, you know, haunted and everything… maybe you’re just a little, teeny, tiny bit worried about yourself.”  
  



	3. Future

    After exactly 26 minutes of uninterrupted sleep, Veronica woke up to a chill in the air, and yet another ghost standing over her. This time, she was faced with a long black cloak, seemingly empty but still standing tall.    
  
    “Lemme guess, Christmas future? Not terrifying at all,” she nodded, pulling herself out of bed. “Was Dickens just… writing down fact, or? Hey, does that make me Scrooge?” The ghost didn’t answer, and Veronica couldn’t see a face but she felt a frown. “Okay, let’s see the future,” she closed her eyes a blink, and then gone from her apartment, she found herself instead in a crowd.    
  
   A crowd facing an open casket.    
  
   “Is this the part where I die an old maid? Those home ec classes never paid off, did they? But hey… this is a, you know. Sizable turnout?” Pulling her lips tight, Veronica wasn’t sure that chatting with this ghost was as much fun as chatting with Lilly or Wallace.    
  
    People moved around them and through them, and Veronica didn’t really feel like she recognized anyone there. Taking a few, unsure steps through the funeral home, Veronica kept her eyes looking through the crowd. Where was Wallace? Mac? Her friends? Her family? Who were all these people?   
  
   “Veronica Mars?”    
  
    Veronica turned her head, and saw herself- her olderself across the room, and her stomach dropped. She wasn’t at her funeral. Her futureself was meeting a man in a Naval uniform, an officer something who’s striped shoulders spoke of a long naval career.    
  
    “Logan Echolls was one of my best pilots, ma’am, and one of my best friends,” the man nodded at the open casket at the front of the room, and Veronica watched her futureself nod along. “I never got the full story with you two,” the man had a joke in his eyes about that, “but I know on long deployments he wrote to you, until his very last mission.”   
  
    Veronica positioned herself in the middle of the conversation, and watched her own face drop. Her future self grappled with how to respond, and her time-travelling self listened hard.   
  
   “There’s no reason Logan would’ve written to me, and I never got any letters, so I think you must have me confused-”   
  
    “Ma’am,” the officer interrupted with a curt nod, and held out a thick folder. “He never sent ‘em, but I know he wrote ‘em. In ‘08 we shared a bunk and he’d keep the light on all night writing  _ something. _ I promised Mouth I’d never read them, but he told me to forward them if he ever, well… anyway, I’m forwarding them now. These are for you, they’re all to you, and dated, and I just thought you should have them if you came here.” With a military frown, the man passed the binder into her hands, and both Veronicas stared down shocked.    
  
   There were  _ pounds _ of letters.    
  
    Watching tears well up and sparkle in her own eyes, Veronica followed herself out to the parking lot, with the ghost silently following, too.    
  
   “You know what they say, don’t you? They’re why we’re here? Why would you show me… Logan Echolls is…” Veronica stopped searching for the words, the ghost wouldn’t answer anyway.    
  
   Future Veronica put the binder on the passenger seat of her car and took a few long, deep breaths.    
  
   “Maybe they’re his mess hall diaries, we really don’t know;  _ damn, _ will you  _ open _ it,” Veronica yelled at herself, and was surprised when future Veronica picked the binder back up and slowly opened it.   
  
_ Spanning years and continents; _ both Veronicas remembered. 


	4. We Used To Be Friends

    “Logan Echolls, speaking,” Logan answered the phone on the second ring, and thought he heard the faintest breathing on the other end of the line. “Hello?”  
  
     Veronica cleared her throat, and nodded to herself, the phone pressed tight to her ear. “Hey, Logan. It’s… it’s Veronica Mars.”  
  
    Logan laughed into the phone, shaking his head. “It’s 2012, we have caller id now, Veronica. I figured it was you calling from, you know… your phone.” Teasing her after all this time of radio silence? Maybe too bold a play. But if Veronica was calling after everything, he had to find out why. “Is everything… alright? Not that I’m not happy to hear from you,” he reassured the quiet end of the line, “just. Well…”  
  
    “No, no, no, everything’s fine, everything’s fine,” Veronica hurried to answer, then. Everything was _probably_ fine? Aside from all the haunting and the not sleeping and oh _shit,_ what time was it in California? “I’m… not waking you up am I?” She winced.   
  
    “I wouldn’t mind if you were, but nope, I’m already up. Are you sure everything’s okay? I heard… I heard you were in New York,” Logan looked down at his lap. The odd piece of information about Veronica Mars still crept into his life. High school was a long time ago, and his life was better now, he was a better man. A grown up, almost; he laughed to himself. But every once in awhile? Every once in awhile he thought of Veronica Mars, and every once in awhile wondered if she thought of him, too.   
  
    “Yeah. Yeah, I’m an east coast girl now,” Veronica settled in her chair. When she dialed, she had every intention of  leaving a very nice, short _Merry Christmas_ voicemail and starting out slow. “I heard, you were in the Navy?” Heard from _who,_ she wasn’t prepared to say.   
  
    Smiling, Logan wondered who mentioned that. “Yeah, I fly navy jets now. So, take that high school guidance counselor,” he chuckled. The years in between hadn’t been easy, but they hadn’t been all bad. And he was _somewhere_ now, a better place.   
  
   “You must be away a lot,” Veronica heard herself prying, but. A leopard and its spots, she tried not to remind herself.   
  
    “Not as much as you,” Logan laughed again, and it made Veronica relax to feel like this again. Like they were playing some game, flexing those old muscles she hadn’t used in forever.   
  
   “I’ve been thinking about coming home,” she sighed, surprising herself again. Going back to Neptune, stomping all over her old stomping grounds; was that the new plan? “You know, I mean, I’ve been thinking about visiting Neptune. Soon,” she added, almost in a whisper.   
  
    “Really? So that’s why the call? You wanna get the Neptune band back together? I’ve still got Dick on speed dial…”  
  
    “Don’t threaten me,” she laughed. “Little Dick’s still living the frathouse dream?”  
  
   “Every day of his life,” smiling, Logan realized how glad he was to hear from her. They weren’t talking about anything, sure… but her voice, her laugh. He thought he could hear her smiling. “Don’t let you hear him call you that, though.”   
  
    She smiled to herself, waiting a beat. “It just started snowing here,” falling snow caught her eye out the window.   
  
   “A white Christmas? No kidding. That’s something to see.” Logan could see the beach out his front windows, but he could imagine a white Christmas all the same. “Merry Christmas, Veronica.”   
  
    “Merry Christmas,” she tucked the phone against her ear, shifting on the couch. “That’s really why I called I guess, and I’m just realizing now that you definitely have plans and company and a Christmas hootenanny that I’m interrupting to blather on about Little Dicks and snowflakes, but. I just wanted to say Merry Christmas,” _from me and Lilly,_ Veronica swallowed the thought.   
  
    “Nope, no hooting no nannies for me, I ship back out tomorrow, actually, so. I’m getting ready and tying up loose ends and stuff, no big Christmas to-do this year.” Or the last several years, Logan added, mentally. “I’m glad you called, it’s really good to hear from you.” His duffle was at his feet, almost fully packed, ready to be zipped.   
  
    “Oh, I’m sorry, then I’m keeping you from getting ready,” Veronica shook her head, closing her eyes. “How long will you be gone for? You know, so I can schedule the Neptune Band’s opening night for sometime after you’re back.”  
  
     "I'll be on the ship three months, and then home for a bit." Logan cleared his throat; three months at sea had sounded nice, he'd been looking forward to a short trip to re-up his licenses and give his sea legs a good run.  
  
     "Still hanging your hat at the Neptune Grand?" Veronica went for the easy joke, putting three months from her mind. She wasn't sure what she expected, from either of them. She wasn't sure why she was disappointed he wouldn't be home for three months, because she didn't have any plans to be in California, then, either.   
  
    "Nah, got a nice grown up house and everything now. I pay bills, do dishes, it's all very sexy and domestic." Logan remembered his time living on hotel beds, some memories were fond and others, not so much.   
  
    "I bet," Veronica said, and shook her head at herself. "I bet it's... you know. Nice," she smiled.   



	5. God Bless Us

    After a luxurious, home-cooked Christmas feast, at least four different desserts, and two long turns under the mistletoe, Logan and Veronica finally settled on Keith’s couch, nearing what promised to be a great presents exchange.   
  
    “Okay, who goes first? Should we draw straws, pick numbers out of a hat, form a line and go in birth order?” Keith rubbed his palms together, inching out of his arm chair towards the Christmas tree. A far cry from the year before, the condo was filled with glittering ornaments,  turkey smells and shiny wrapping paper. And of course, his favorite daughter and her navy boyfriend.   
  
    “How about… you first, then? What’s the saying, the oldies get goodies?” Veronica squinted, passing her dad a big box wrapped in Christmas red wrapping paper.    
  
    “Ha-ha; I opened that door on myself when I brought up birth order, huh? Honey, you don’t have to get me anything, you know that. It’s a gift you’re here,” he pressed a kiss to her cheek.   
  
    “It’s from both of us,” Veronica watched Logan sit up straighter when she looked his way.    
  
    Since their reconnection, Veronica noticed that Logan and her father got along much better than the Neptune High or Hearst College days. Something about men in uniform recognizing men in uniform? But all Christmas Eve Veronica felt like Logan was on edge around her father; and that had her mind wandering.    
  
    “Kids, this is too much…” Keith unwrapped the box to find a set of Padres jerseys. Home colors, with matching hats. “This must have been a fortune, Veronica… you know we said no extravagant gifts.”   
  
    “I know, I know, but Logan twisted my arm,” she threw him under the bus with a smile. “Plus, we thought you might need some new outfits for all the home games you’re gonna go to this year.”   
  
    “Well… I don’t know how many games I’m really gonna get to…” Keith trailed off, trying on a hat. You know, just to see how it felt.    
  
     “Well, that’s a shame,” Logan sighed, “I don’t know  anyone else who can use these tickets…” He offered an envelope Keith’s way; season ticket passes. Every home game, right behind the plate.    
  
    “Veronica…” Keith, groaned.    
  
    “Dad…” Veronica mirrored his groan. “Think of it as making up for the couple of years I sent you #1 Dad mugs in the mail,” she kissed cheek and squeezed Logan’s hand.    
  
    Her life was different, after moving back. Navy boyfriend, family around. Christmas tree up, and everything. “Okay, Logan, you next. Ready, close your eyes,” she rifled through a big bag of Christmas presents- Wallace’s, and Mac’s, and even something for Dick, way down at the bottom. “Okay, hold on, I must have left yours in the car,” she got up. “Pause on the Christmas, there’s a, I repeat, pause on the Christmas. One sec,” she grabbed her car keys.   
  
    “Mhm,” Logan nodded, smiling up at her, “I’ve got egg nog and plenty of things to talk about with your dad, you just take your time out there,” he teased, earning himself an easy eye roll.   
  
     Checking the trunk, Veronica rifled through her equipment, double checking everywhere. Stuck _ right  _ underneath the back seat, Veronica reached for it, and shook her head at herself. She was  _ pretty _ sure she checked she had everything before they went into her dad’s.    
  
   “Found it!” Veronica came back in, but Logan wasn’t where she left him.    
  
    Kneeling in the hall in his naval uniform, Logan smiled, and watched her face turn to a watery smile.    
  
    “I still don’t know what made you pick up the phone four years ago and call me in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. Maybe you had too much eggnog or I just got lucky, but… It changed my life in every way that matters. You coming back into my life was the best Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten, and… will you marry me? Spend every Christmas with me?” He swore he prepared something more elegant, less messy. But Veronica’s eyes were glistening and Keith was blubbering in the kitchen with a camera and, “No one writes songs  about the ones that come easy. I  _ do _ have a deployment coming up in a couple of weeks, I’ll call you as often as I can-”   
  
    “Will you write?” Veronica asked, putting her hands through his hair. “I got you some of the fancy stationery for Christmas,” she waved to the Christmas gift box forgotten now, “I thought maybe we could write. And call. And Skype. And skywrite. But maybe…”   
  
    “My bunkmates always made fun of me,” shaking his head, Logan took the ring from the box, and slipped it on her finger, “I’ve been writing you letters every night I’m away since I joined. I just… didn’t know if you wanted them when you were in New York, and.. We always talked on the phone, anyways, so I never sent ‘em when we were together. Sometimes they’re kind of heavy, and-”   
  
   “Yes. Yes I want to marry you, yes I want your letters; yeah. Yes,” she nodded, reaching down to kiss him, pulling him up to stand with her. “Merry Christmas,” she looked down at the ring.    
  
    “God bless us, everyone,” Keith’s voice cracked, and Logan laughed, breaking their kiss.    
  
    “Now to the Fennel’s for second dessert?” Veronica smoothed mascara from her eye, looking up at Logan with a deep breath.    
  
    “He owes me ten bucks,” Keith chimed, when Logan nodded. “He said you were gonna do it at New Years.”   
  
    Logan reached to shake Keith’s hand, now they would be family, for real, and Keith brought him into a hug. Veronica joined the hug, too, pressing her face to her family.    
  
    Engaged. To Logan Echolls. On Christmas.  _ Thanks, Lilly, _ Veronica smiled and hugged tighter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this was a little rushed and a little sappy but. it's new years eve and. sometimes that's the mood. see ya next year!


End file.
